The Korean War (1950-1953)

Eisenhower, War's End, and the Aftermath

Review Test

Who won the Korean War?

No conclusive winner emerged. Instead, Korea returned to the "status quo ante
bellum" (the way things were before the war) and North and South Korea remained
divided. The US did succeed in checking Communist expansion; however, it did so
at great cost in money and lives. In the larger Cold
War context, the Korean War did little to improve
the situation, though it also didn't lead to disintegration of relations that it
could have.

Why did North Korea cross the 38th Parallel and invade South Korea?

The North Koreans were interested in attempting to reunify Korea under Communist
rule, and Stalin most likely gave his
approval for the invasion, perhaps as a test of how the US would react (or, as
some have hypothesized, a test run for Berlin?). Regardless, the North Koreans
were armed with Soviet T-34 tanks. Also, US speeches and policy at the time
suggested to the North Koreans and the rest of the Communist world that Korea
was not vital to American security and interests.

How did American politics effect the war?

Truman, a Democrat, was afraid of appearing "soft on Communism", lest his
Republican opponents attack him. McCarthyism in
particular, a rampant paranoid anti-communism sweeping the US, created a
particularly hysterical anti-Communist environment. Wihtin this context, though
General MacArthur (not to be confused with Senator Joseph
McCarthy, who was unrelated) often acted
insubordinately, Truman could not take action against him because the general
was so popular with the Republicans. In fact, only the combined support of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff saved Truman from impeachment after he fired
MacArthur. Truman could not negotiate easily with the Communists either, for
fear of Republican criticism. Only Eisenhower, a
Republican President, was able to make concessions to Chinese and Panmunjom,
managing to get a weak treaty signed without criticism.

Why did the US intervene in Korea when it did not intervene in China?

Having just seen China fall, US policymakers had a heightened sensitivity to
Communist threats, and considered the North Korean invasion to be a possible
test-run for an invasion in Eastern Europe. According to the logic of NSC-
68, a communist attack anywhere should be viewed as
an attack everywhere. Under that logic, Korea became "as good a place to draw
the line as anywhere."

Describe the role of the UN in the Korean War.

The UN was basically a policy instrument of the US during the Korean War.
Especially with the USSR boycotting most UN proceedings, the US used its
powerful influence to shape UN policy to meet its own individual needs. The UN
International Peace-Keeping Force, made up mostly of American troops (and a few
NATO troops), was really just a sham engineered to
give the appearance that support for South Korea was more than just a unilateral
American action.

Was the Korean War an international war or a Civil War?

Certainly many nations were involved in the Korean War, and in that sense it was
a very international war. However, one should remember that Korea had been
divided arbitrarily by the US and the USSR after World War II. The 38th
Parallel was a made-up boundary with no historical precedent or resonance, and
so, in a sense, the North Korean attack might be considered part of an internal,
civil war to unify a single country that shared the same culture and language
and had historically been unified. It was because of this somewhat ambiguous
nature of the Korean War that the UN classified the attack by North Korea as a
"breach of peace" rather than a far worse act of "aggression".

Why did the negotiations to end the Korean War go on for so long.

The negotiations at Kaesong and then Panmunjom dragged on for so long
(about 2 years) primarily because neither side was willing to make concessions
for fear of appearing weak. Specific issues included the fate of Formosa
(Taiwan), the dividing line between North and South Korea, and the question of
what to do with POWs (Prisoners of War).

Why did the PRC (People's Republic of China) cross the Yalu and start a
counteroffensive against the US/UN/ROK forces?

As MacArthur's forces pressed North across the 38th Parallel, the Chinese
Communists feared an invasion of Manchuria. Furthermore, MacArthur's
meeting with Truman at Wake Island suggested to PRC leaders that a major US
offensive was in the works, perhaps a plot to restart the Chinese civil war.

What was the result of Truman's firing MacArthur.

General Ridgway replaced MacArthur as Commander of the Far East. Ridgway
held a more conservative stance, followed orders from Washington readily, and
did not seek to expand the war as haphazardly as MacArthur did. However,
Truman's dismissal of MacArthur upset many MacArthur-loving Republicans in
Congress, who threatened to impeach Truman. Fortunately for him, Truman had the
unanimous opinion of the JCS behind him, so he wasn't impeached. In the
long run, Truman's reliance on the Joint Chiefs of Staff increased the group's
power in military decisions over the future Presidents.

Was strategic bombing effective during the Korean War?

For the most part it was not. North Korea was simply not industrialized enough
for strategic bombing to have a devastating impact. The infrastructure
(especially bridges and roads) that strategic bombing did manage to destroy were
usually quickly rebuilt by North Korean laborers. In negotiations as well,
strategic bombing, even that aimed against dams and power plants in northernmost
Korea, failed to win concessions, and may actually have hardened the resolve of
the Communists.